NASA Spots Mysterious 'Spider' on Mercury

NASA Spots Mysterious 'Spider' on Mercury ^ | 30 January 2008, 3:54 pm ET | Clara Moskowitz

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

ROFL

[mewzilla]

Galactus hocked a loogie?

[Bob]

Whoa! Look in the right top corner and you can see a Walmart.

I don't think so - that's got to be either the Mercury Insurance solar system headquarters or the now-closed Dennis Kookcinich campaign offices.

[blam]

One of your circles, lol?

[Bender2]

Reminds me... of those lines

On the Plains... of Nazca in Peru

[Jabba the Nutt]

It looks like two things to me. One is what a dragon fly looks like after it hits the windshield at about 60mph. Or it looks like a giant sperm. I’m not explaining it, I’m just saying what it looks like.

[rfp1234]

http://www.nuestro.cl/eng/stories/tourism/geoglifo.htm

[rfp1234]

Or it looks like a giant sperm.

[going hot]

retina?

[zot]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting. Whatever that was, it went SPLAT !

[rfp1234]

A giant fungus.

[icwhatudo]

[Vince Ferrer]

...appears to be an impact crater surrounded by more than 50 cracks in the surface radiating from its center.

The crater does not look like it is part of the cause of the lines, however. It looks like a later accidental addition. This looks like ancient lava tubes from a worn away lava dome, or some such volcanic activity coming up from the crust, not from an impact. The dark spot is probably an ancient volcano.

Another theory, which would be really interesting and far out there, is that the lines were caused by an electrical discharge between Mercury and another body.

[shaft29]

Nah. If it was Kookcinich’s campaign offices, you would see a bunch of tongue rings.

[Fred Nerks]

One of your circles, lol?

you funny...here's a rectangle for you. On Mars.

[blam]

An old launching pad?

War Of The Worlds

[evets]

[Fred Nerks]

Loved the music! Meanwhile back on Mercury...

Diagram showing the interior structure of Mercury. The metallic core extends from the center to a large fraction of the planetary radius. Radar observations show that the core is at least partially molten. Image: Nicolle Ragger Fuller, National Science Foundation

Seriesly, (IMO) Mercury was hit by a huge electric (plasma) discharge from the Sun, it's core melted...and now that the little planet is cooling, it's shrinking.

[Fred Nerks]

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/shrinking_mercury_040816.html

Among the odder Mercurian attributes scientists hope to test is a theory that the planet is shrinking, contracting in on itself as its core slowly freezes...

[blam]

I’ve never paid any attention to Mercury.